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Videos: What should radical political org look like today?

Initial contributions at the open forum ‘What should radical political organisation look like today?’ held in London on the 6 March. Some great ideas and questions put forward by Tom Walker (former member of the Socialist Workers Party), Preeti Paul (IOPS London supporter), James O’Nions (Red Pepper co-editor) and Luke Cooper (Anticapitalist Initiative supporter and co-author of Beyond Capitalism?).

The case for local communes:
The focus shouldn’t just be on a ‘Party’ & electoral politics. Vast numbers of people instinctively know that so-called ‘representative’ democracy is nothing of the sort, but most, understandably, can’t see any alternative. They know the system screws them every which way. Hence the danger of over-focusing on electoral politics is you come across as another group of wanna-be’s wanting power. In this pursuit of votes the temptation will be to moderate the message because of a hostile media. Falling into the Syriza trap of looking to be a credible government presiding over a less harsh form of capitalism – a bit of nationalisation here & there, a bit of redistribution, but still capitalism.
What is needed is to present an alternative system rather than an alternative party. That means building an alternative system now. Not vote for us who believe in an alternative system & when we get power, then we’ll give it to you. Building an alternative system now is like the Occupy movement, or the structure of the IOPS website. It is direct democracy now. Giving people an equal say in decision-making now. Not another group of politicians, however well intentioned, separated from the people.
We can do this through facebook. Already the Commune have local Commune groups, not just in Britain but also in places like Cairo. These can be opened up to all who want the common ownership of the means of production rather than the private ownership. The embryonic 21st century on-line Soviets, or councils, or assemblies, or whatever people want to call them. We’ve gone for the name communes after the Paris Commune of 1871. The hope is that as they attract enough people they meet regularly & become a parallel system of power eventually challenging & supplanting the capitalist political institutions. Being facebook this can be done internationally & can take on its own momentum. Facebook would then of course end up being owned & control by the people along with all the other means of production.
For a list of the communes currently in existence, see the Commune website. Just contact me or the Commune directly for a new one to be set up, or just set one up yourself & invite your contacts in that locality along. Isn’t this worth a go? http://thecommune.co.uk/contacts-links/